Parents of Liberty High School students, do you wish for your children to live long happy lives? Those of you who said no should not be parents; however, those who said yes please consider the facts. Obesity in the United States is one of the most widespread health issues we have and it is becoming especially prevalent in child and teenage populations. Obesity causes a wide range of health problems, from a lack of energy to just plain death from cholesterol blocking your heart valves. Of course we alone cannot solve the issue on the national scale, but we do have the power to keep it from becoming an issue at our school. There are a few things we can change at this school to make it healthier for students, and making our students healthier would lead to a plethora of other benefits such as being able to pay attention better. First and foremost we should change our cafeteria, a greasy slice of pepperoni pizza is a lunch option every day! Second, we could follow the suit of many other schools and stop the sale of sugar fortified drinks such as Gatorade, thus cracking down on the amount of sugar students consume and preventing diabetes. Third and lastly, students should be better educated about the choices they make with their food intake and the possible consequences that may arise by having a bad food intake. Overall, it is very important to stop obesity before it becomes at problem at Liberty High School. Part of the reason students at liberty are not eating healthy food is because students consider the junk food alternative to be better, and who can blame them? …show more content…
In the eyes of a teenager, most are going to take a greasy slice of pizza before going for the salad, because of this two courses of action are needed. The cafeteria are going to need to throw out their unhealthy food, their pizza, their hamburgers, their chips and their hotdogs. This can easily be done, it is as simple as just not ordering these unhealthy choices in the first place. The next step is to introduce healthy alternatives that are low in sugar, fat, sodium, cholesterol and preservatives. Some may say that it is impossible to order such a massive amount of food from a source other then a big mass producing food company. The same people will say that it will be too expensive as well; however, according to the New York Times article "No Lunch Left Behind" by Alice Waters and Katrina Heron, "Parent advocacy groups have turned to local farmers for fresh alternatives" (Heron). Not only is it possible to get fresh, healthy food but it is also possible to get them and stay afloat. According to Waters and Heron "Amid steep budgetary challenges, these community-supported coalitions are demonstrating that schools can be the masters of their own menu" (Heron). Parents, if you are sick of waiting for the school to do something or the government to do something, it may very well be time for YOU to do something. I am a new student at Liberty and because of that I have experience with more schools then just Liberty. At my old high school, and many other schools around the country, they are banning the sale of sugary drinks such as soda or Gatorade. There are absolutely no benefits to students by having these sugary drinks here, the only thing being benefitted is the wallet of the school district. According to Mark Bittman in his New York Times article "Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables" he states that "The average American consumes 44.7 gallons of soft drinks annually" (Bittman). This wild sugar intake is making diabetes cases sky rocket in the United States, we do not need help the problem. Also these sugary drinks that the school sells is gonna make the students wired at first, and then crash next. In both states of mind, it is definitely not an optimal learning environment. By selling these drinks the school is not only supporting the educational downfall of its own students but worse it is helping the students get that much closer to being obese and contracting all of these horrible, life threatening diseases linked with obesity and sugar. Some may argue that it is wrong to take options away from the students but